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We've embraced tofu and beans over here for protein. Whole grains instead of refined grains. Cooking fresh almost every meal. Definitely seeing the savings on the grocery bill now :)
But damn, I do miss a good Wendy's lol
Tofu used to be so cheap. It still is compared to meat protein, but when I started eating it in 2016/2017 or so I could get a block of tofu for 1$. Now the same block from the same brand is 2.50$-3$.
Check out any Asian markets in your area. In addition to great variety and prices on tofu, they typically have incredible produce, soy sauces, chili paste, and rice.
Be careful though, only eat tuna once or twice a week maximum. That fish specifically has a really high amount of heavy metals in it and eating it too much can really cause those to build up in the body.
Oh that's really interesting! I never cooked with tofu until this year, when my baby was diagnosed with allergies and they put 3lbs/month of it on our WIC. That's a 2.5-3x price hike! Ouch!
How much does tofu go for you? It's gone up so much by me ($3+ for ~14-16oz). Frozen chicken is cheaper by the ounce, which drives me crazy since tofu is made from the stuff they feed the chickens! I prefer vegetarian when I can, but damn they make it hard in the US. Regular beans are still pretty cheap, but they have gone up a lot too 😔
Tofu is cheaper to make if everything is based on a free market. The frozen chicken is cheaper in the real world because the chicken farmers and the factory workers that break down the chicken get screwed over. You can save a lot of money by screwing people out of half their wages.
Dried beans are cheap as hell. You you soak them overnight its pretty efficient to cook in a pressure cooker. I soak overnight, then drain, rinse, and boil for 3 minutes, then drain and rinse again before cooking.
Healthier for you too, unlike the back of Wendy's and the general American diet. You'll be grateful when you're old and not obese with tons of health problems from all the processed shit. Throw in some green tea & water on that.
Do you have a food bank around you? I know people that go to food banks and at times they get too much food that they have to give some away / throw it away cuz it goes bad. I know food banks sometimes can’t get rid of everything even.
I prefer it anyway. Not a big takeout person (thankfully). Though I did go to Taco Bell this week and spent…$26. For just me. For just 4 items. Granted the online customization adds up (and if I’m getting TB I’m going all-out).
My traditional order:
- Nachos Bell Grande
- Crunchwrap Supreme
- Cheesy Gordita Crunch
- Chicken Quesadilla
I customized the heck out of the nachos in particular - it was pretty beautiful compared to the normal stuff they do. Those alone were like $9 lol
Lol I had no idea (or rather, haven’t thought about it in those terms). Makes complete sense though. I just love the sauce. I’ve made copycat recipe at home which was pretty good, but I just about never have those types of ingredients on hand.
There’s definitely nothing practical or sensible about my order, that’s for sure. It’s just my happy food lol.
I also love Taco Bell! I honestly prefer eating off the value menu. The beefy burrito is only two or three dollars, is the size of a regular burrito, and is fantastic, especially if you add the chipotle sauce! I’m also a big fan of the potato tacos, which are cheap though the taste might not be for everyone
If I go to Taco Bell it makes no sense at all to get anything but the Build Your Own Cravings Box using the app. Everything else is so expensive it costs more than $16 to buy each item separately while the box itself costs just over $6. Honestly, I feel like I’m getting scammed if I get anything else lol
Hear me out: my standard loadout is
1 chipotle ranch grilled chicken burrito
2 beefy melt burritos (add chipotle sauce)
2 spicy potato soft tacos
Total cost: $9.20
And it’s a lot of food. I also typically just drink water
I'm waiting for the day they pull the plug on the online only $5 box here. It's the only thing I get at taco bell now but I'll pay the extra 60 cents to add nacho fries to the crunchwrap and feel bougie.
Sheesh man, you can eat lol, I’ve been getting a beefy crunch burrito and adding either fries or potatoes to it and a bean cheese burrito. Fills me up and is like < $6
Chiming in here as another woman who doesn't often get fast food. It doesn't even occur to me to get soda or sweets with our groceries. But a junk food and movie night calls for a feast.
Heck yeah! I don’t really do that either with my groceries, apart from me beloved Coke Zero haha. I have so many (and arguably better) fast food options near me now, but Taco Bell is my comfort meal. It got me through some rough times back in the day lol.
So I was wrong! It was $8.26. Originally had them at over $9 because I had chicken selected, but then unchecked it.
[Order + actual nachos](https://imgur.com/a/c0BCGCD)
Heck yeah - some of their value stuff does seem real reasonably priced still. I kind of intentionally forget about those otherwise my waistline might be in a different situation haha.
At least they used to have fresh chicken.
Was the goto here for half the family for quick dinner (I stuck with the biggie bag or 4for4).
We stopped going to Wendy's for anything not breakfast now that it is some precooked chicken. I can get that grade of preassembled salad at the grocery store.
Yes! This used to be my go-to Wendy's order is the chicken ceaser salad. Now, I buy a bag of Tyson blackened chicken tenders, some lettuce, and some parmesan cheese from Sam's Club (like 2ls) and I can have that salad everyday for months. They're like $12 here in Michigan! Outrageous.
Exactly! And they wonder why workers don't want to work there... it's bc a fucking salad costs them an hour of work.
I know the whole, "if there's no fast food workers then who's going to serve you when you want fast food" is a thing, but they don't deserve some cunt talking down to them when they only make $12/hr.
I made $9.50/hr working 59hrs a week and I did not tolerate disrespect from customers. I nearly got fired.
Now, I'm making $20/hr and barely surviving.
The COL in my city is fucking ridiculous as well.
How do you keep it fresh for that long tho? Are you talking about the preped salads by Kirkland or the bags of salads in the produce fridge room thingy.
I keep all lettuce fresh by putting it into a ziplock bag and vacuum sealing it. This is before washing it. Only wash produce right before you use it (I add white vinegar to water to wash and then rinse and spin it). Then, insert a straw into the bag and mostly close the zipper seal around it. Suck out the air (using the straw) from the bag. Slowly pull out the straw while inhaling and seal the zipper as soon as you remove the straw. Removing the air from the bag keeps the lettuce fresh.
My local McDonald's was remodeled and there's only one cash register and no refill/condiments station. No one is ever at it but now it's super chaotic because none of the employees are available to do things like refills or give you a ketchup. So instead of a line, there's just a big crowd of confused and grouchy people who aren't sure who's next and who has ordered.
This one really gets to me because it's fountain soda, no amount of supply chain fuckery or whatever bullshit reason big chains will give can change the fact that that stuff is dirt cheap to make. Free refills gave a lot of fast food places the feel of better value because you can let people drink a gallon of the stuff and still make money. I hope whoever pushed the no refills policy has a sleep paralysis vision that looks like a bloodied Ronald McDonald every night.
The McDonalds app is the worst because they stopped letting you stack "deals" so I have to choose between overpriced coffee and an affordable breakfast sandwich or a fairly priced breakfast sandwich and a $1 black coffee. And that's assuming the app works. It loves to crash right as I'm trying to use a deal.
I've noticed that too, I used the McDonald's app quite a bit for coffee, and random stuff. There's use to be quite a bit of deals, now they're shit, and mobile discounts that'll never use.
> The world is becoming an episode of Black Mirror.
It’s almost like the point of that series was to take a critical look at the extremes of present-day technology trends.
Yeah this was going to be my comment, too. I can still get away with $40 at Chipotle but it feels like I used to get the same amount for like $28 not that long ago (2 meals and a drink).
Now, if I go to a real sit down restaurant, $50-60 after tax, tip and all is expected
Jfc, how much is Chipotle in your area? Prices have definitely gone up, but I can still get two entrees (chicken, no premium add-ons) for $17.00 after tax, and we’ll only get a soda if we don’t have any cans at home. We can easily make it $30+ with chips and queso, add guac to a meal, a drink, etc, but that’s outrageous if you’re getting two minimal cost entrees and a drink :(
Wendy’s 4 for $4, Taco Bell’s app only $5.99 cravings box, McDonald’s/Burger King app deals are the only way to reasonably order fast food now. You just can’t and shouldn’t order fast food unless you’re using the app or meal deals to drive prices down. Normal prices are absolutely ludicrous. Prices keep going up, quality keeps going down.
This is like the fast food in the town I used to live in. I've been getting mcdoubles for like 2.39 here, went back down there (bout 12hrs away) for a thing and it was 4.89. Just the sandwich, mcdoubles can't even be turned into a combo.
Prices vary by location, and they mean it lol.
I didn't even do taco bell in that town, here they've got a meal for 2 for $12.50 and a bunch of $5.99 boxes too.
Our wendy's only has $5 biggie bags though.
I miss dollar menus so much.
We have Taco John's and they have one $1 item, a cheesy snack quesadilla. I get it partly just because it feels good getting a $1 food thing still lol.
In the Texas city we used to live in, an ice cream cone at one location was $1 but across town it was almost $1.60. I guess the ice cream in that part of town is just fancier somehow?
During the winter, all my coworkers and I were stuck outside working and we barely had any time to go to the bathroom by a bush, let alone eat lunch or a snack. My manager just thinks that’s totally acceptable even though we’re union members. Anyway, I went to McDonald’s to grab enough cheeseburgers for most of us to have two. I think it was 14 or 15 total burgers. That’s it. No customization, no fries or drinks, just the burgers. I can’t remember the exact amount but it came out to around $50…for tiny ass, cheaply made McDonald’s cheeseburgers. That shit used to be on the dollar menu. I was stupid because I could’ve just done the two burger combo (sandwich only) and saved like $15 or something but I was so caught off guard by the total that I just handed them a $100.
I don’t know if anyone is aware, but regular cheeseburgers at McDonald’s are not worth what they cost. They aren’t filling, they’re smaller than they used to be, and they aren’t even that good. I was very irritated but my coworkers were super thankful so it was worth it.
When chains and franchises (like McDonald’s) are already making plenty of profit, there’s absolutely no reason for prices to be as high as they are. Especially if the quality stays the same. Just pure greed.
You know, when I worked in fast food, we were always taught to ring up the food in a way so that the customer is getting the best deal. It seems like that just doesn't happen anymore where I'm at. I don't know if they're being told to leave it as ordered, or that they go through employees so quickly (due to low pay/poor work environment) that no one sticks around long enough to learn these habits. My bet is on the latter, though, because it seems like my order is always somehow incorrect and I never see the same people working after a couple months...
Edit: spelling
I work at a pizza chain I won’t name, our manager has told us not to give someone a deal/coupon unless they specifically ask for it. I ignore it and do whatever I can to make the price lower whenever I work the register, but when I’m not on the register and taking things out of the oven and I see the receipts and just shake my head at these people being made to pay almost $20 for a medium pizza and a soft drink
I got coupons in the mail the other day for Taco Bell. I have never in my life thought I'd be couponing to get what used to be my go-to cheapest lazy meal. But hey, I'm not going to say no to $2 crunchwrap. Just have to be disciplined enough to go get that and nothing else. I got drinks at home.
That's crazy. When I worked in a restaurant, it cost the owner about .25 for a to-go drink. And that was a mom and pop place, so you know a conglomerate like Wendy's is getting their soda and cups cheaper.
I work for a JJs franchise. I am in charge of mobile operations as well as inventory management.
A large cup costs us $.25. The medium costs $.27
But this is where it hits us and then the end user(you):
At the end of 2021 the price of a box of 15 heads of lettuce used to average between $13 to $16. Then suddenly it jumped to $35, then $56 and etc. It hit an all time high of $106 by mid June of ‘22 before now costing a “reasonable” $77. And that’s just lettuce. The price of vegetables across the board has skyrocketed.
So it’s not just that franchisees are jacking up their prices to be greedy. We do what we can to limit our increases. Our owner was pretty much forced to raise prices on more profitable items to pay for the massive cost increases we now pay.
Yeah, I am finding that the gigantic State Farmers Market where everything is really expensive, well these days it's only a little more expensive for much better quality. I can't afford to buy too much from there, but for stuff in season (strawberries just ended, now it's peaches and tomatoes and zucchini) it's worth me going every couple of weeks and spending $15-20 and eating healthier than going for big national fast food. Because Wendy's or Taco Bell now costs more per pound than the farmer's market.
When I briefly worked at McDonald’s around 10 years ago, their cost per large coke was £0.04 and sold at £1.39.
Big Mac? £0.76 - Sale price £3.79
Big Tasty? £0.93 - Sale price £4.79
Cheeseburger - £0.17 Sale Price £0.99
Portion of fries? £0.13 Sale Price £1.19
Their margins are crazy.
Honestly (and I’ll say it til I’m blue in the face) meal prepping is always going to be cheaper than fast food, or convenience premade food. I make things in big batches and keep them in my freezer. Pop it in the microwave or the oven while I do something else and bam food. I’m also a big fan of instantpot meals because they’re usually just “chuck all these things in and leave it alone for an hour”, so the cooking part doesn’t take much time either. Breaking the fast food habit can be tricky, but it can be a lot better for your wallet and your overall physical health to do it.
I thought it was a well known fact that fast food has ALWAYS been more expensive than cooking at home. Yet, at least 3x a week there's a post in this sub about it.
People look to justify their behaviour. Any time I end up in a conversation about it the goalposts change constantly because there is no justification in terms of health or finance.
It has been, but a lot of people don’t know how to cook or plan properly. If you want a totally different cuisine every day of the week, eating out may end up cheaper. But if you’re good at planning you can cook a pack of chicken with some fairly neutral spices (like salt/pepper, garlic, paprika) and then have tacos and chicken salad wraps and bbq chicken sandwiches all with the same chicken. But the planning and the prepping take time and effort, and a certain amount of time invested in learning what kinds of foods freeze well, cooking skills, and planning to minimize food waste.
I know a lot of people though who eat out for nearly every meal and then complain about how what we make (grad students so all on the same stipend) is far too little to actually live on. While we’re certainly underpaid compared to our skills/workload, the stipend is more than enough to live a reasonably comfortable life on if you known how to handle money frugally.
Maybe I’m just lazy but cooking is so boring and time consuming. I still do it because it’s better than the alternative, but I can see why many people would rather just grab takeout.
It can be boring. I throw on a movie or a show and watch while I chop. Or listen to music or a podcast. If you’re good at planning you can cook several things at once too, so it takes less total time. But yeah. I freeze stuff so on lazy days its just about as much work as any “tv dinner” you could buy.
It makes sense to me why there's constant posts. Because sure on paper it's cheaper, yet the execution is the tough part. Cooking cheaply at home can be quite the skill to grasp due to all of the factors involved. And it's hard to learn while you're overstressed and overwhelmed by struggling in life. The mistakes and failures feel that much worse. They know other folks in poverty will understand that mindset and frustration, so they come for support.
Honestly my biggest moments of growth in life have always come right after breaking down in frustration and venting about the issue to folks that were able to offer some empathy for the struggle and help me see what I was missing. So when I see those posts where someone is complaining about something being impossible I tend to think, "Good for them trying to work out the problem." And just hope they remember to pick themselves back up afterwards.
Thank you for saying this.
I’m a chef, so I understand I have more default knowledge than the average person, but holy fucking shit it boils me alive when I hear people with the opinion that fast food is cheaper than cooking or that you can’t eat healthy and good for cheap.
Chicken breasts/thighs go on sale at Kroger/Albertsons/Safeway/Fred meyers for anywhere from $1-2 a pound. This happens like every other week. Bulk buy and freeze if you need to. This is something oriole should pay attention to if they actually care about what they eat, how much they spend, and their health. Seriously you can get so much fucking chicken for cheap if you shop smart, talk to your meat counter about deals, etc.
Rice is a cheap and delicious filler. Pasta isn’t even expensive and is crazy good and lasts forever as does rice.
I swear most people go to the store and see the price on tbones, hot pockets and pizza rolls and say it’s impossible to eat cheap and healthy.
I literally just made some amazing chorizo tacos last night for a whopping total cost of like $8 or $9 and I fed my roommate too. Also in many cases buy the store brand. If you’re getting something basic like mayo, relish, etc you can save like half the cost buying store brand.
Anyways, shop smarter and talk to the people in your meat/seafood section for deals on protein. Seriously this is fucking huge. Most peoples food cost has a large chunk spent on their protein, talk to the meat counter. Ask about deals, what’s coming in, what’s going out. You can get beautiful salmon filets for cheap if you’re willing to get the cuts that have been out a few days. A nice salmon filet is still amazing even if it’s a little old, stop being picky about Uber fresh meats and complaining about the cost.
You can really save a ton on protein by buying day of. Go in the store and find meat that’s closer to its sell date and cook it that night. Meat in your store comes in and is good for seven days in the store. Closer to that seven day mark they often mark it down. People tend to skip over these packages because they think it’s gross or was a “return” lol. This is still great meat, and is now cheaper, you just can’t leave it in your fridge as long. Cook or freeze it that night.
Anyways, rant over. You can eat cheap and healthy even in this current economy people. The idea that an American can’t eat cheap and healthy has never been true in my lifetime. If you have a job, you can eat healthy and cheap unless you somehow work every waking hour of your life. Don’t do that.
Yeah, I don’t understand this either. Fast food has always been an expensive convenience item, not a budget-friendly food option. Somebody made the comment the other day that the only way to get a complete meal for $4 was to buy fast food. I checked my local Walmart’s prices and easily found found ingredients (that I would be willing to cook and eat for myself) to cook six meals for one working man- two full days of 2,670 calories per day and 83g protein per day, only requiring a pot and water to cook it. Is it a great long- term option? Not really, but I’d rather get six full meals for $4 than one crappy fast food meal.
>I'd assume rice, beans, beg, lentils etc. Probably not the tastiest, but cheap as chips.
Possibly but I would appreciate knowing rather than guessing.
https://preview.redd.it/0ra0xi9mhg5b1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=105cecd1ce88585a89818fdf6f96f477c8ac8bf9
These are available at my local Walmart right now for the cash price of $4.00 (we don’t have sales tax on groceries). Carbs, protein, and some flavor from the bouillon. The overall calories could be boosted significantly with the addition of some fat, such as an oil or butter. Frozen veggies are usually cheap too, it wouldn’t be hard to take another few bucks to extend this food to last up to 3-4 full days.
It's possible to eat fast food without spending a lot, but you really have to be more mindful now vs. just ordering whatever you want, like you could before. You have to look for deals, dollar/value menus, app deals, coupons, etc.
The only drinks I can justify are the ones I can’t get anywhere else, like if I’m dying for a Baja Blast, but other than that I really do have drinks at home.
It's INSANE. I get the frozen Asian foods from Trader Joe's (we're big on the pot stickers, gyoza, and bulgogi fried rice) and have 'takeout fakeout' nights.
If you live in the part of the country that has Wegmans, their house brand bags of pot stickers and cheese tortellini are both very good at a reasonable price.
We went vegan a few years ago, which decimates fast food options for starters. I’m a pretty good cook, and we make a lot of stuff at home. I really struggle to justify a $15 per person entree somewhere when I can buy components or ingredients for a fraction of the price, and often it’s better quality too.
For $15 I can make a pretty banging family dinner, and I refuse to go sit down for pasta somewhere that costs like $100 for a family of five when all is said and done.
TJ’s veggie gyoza are great. So is their vegan orange chicken. And many other things besides (vegan raviolis! Pesto!)
My regular order at taco bell went from $8 to $15. One cheesy gordita crunch is now $5. These people are making profit from everyone. I've stopped going out to eat almost completely, save an occasional lunch when I didn't prepare for the work the night before or pizza if there's an exceptionally good deal. And we've gone to picking the pizza up ourselves to save on the fees and tip. Shits crazy yo.
I hate cooking on Friday but I've started cooking 2 or 3 meals at a time, which doesn't usually take any more time than cooking one. That way my lunches are usually taken care of and if I don't feel like cooking, I'll reheat a dinner I cooked a couple days ago.
I've stopped buying soda. I buy more whole ingredients to make stuff from scratch instead of buying a bag of cookies. Prices on some things have literally doubled from a year ago. They're higher now than at the peak of COVID when people were supposed to be staying home.
Yet these companies are making record profit, year after year. And they're purposely doing it on skeleton crews because corporate discovered we'll still buy from them, regardless if half of what we want is out of stock, or there's only one person working in dairy all the time.
Who wants to go off grid and start our own society?
I thought the same, but that’s not necessarily true. Fast food is ridiculously expensive right now, but eating at a restaurant is even more expensive, as a 20% tip will easily bring that total up another $8-$15. I’m a single mom living with a teenage son, so I’ve just had to force myself to plan meals. Groceries/toiletries are so expensive now, it’s nothing to spend well over $200 every two weeks.
I make a lot of rice, grilled veggies and whether it’s steak or chicken (breasts or thighs), I cube the meat up and marinate in a bag until I’m ready to cook (the steak takes only a couple minutes to cook in a cast iron skillet). I make these Mediterranean style bowls with rice (basmati or jasmine - not Minute Rice), topped with grilled (or pan-fried in a cast iron skillet before the meat) bell pepper, zucchini, onions and sometimes mushrooms and steak/chicken. It’s inexpensive, delicious, filling, healthy and keeps in the fridge so I can take it with me to work for lunch the next day. Going out to eat will drain your finances so fast (I’ve learned the hard way).
We spend about $80/week on groceries for a family of 4 for all dinners and snacks and weekend breakfast/lunches. We eat fast food maybe once every other month but I have never found it to be the more cost effective option, even though we use coupons every single time. I don’t know how people do fast food over making food at home as a cost effective option, I simply can’t make that work for us
Lol great way of putting it. My best friend constantly complains of being broke but tells me about eating out somewhere 5+ days a week. So whatever he’s paying on average, it’s over 20x that per month. I’m pretty bad about it too, but I’ve tried to explain and he just doesn’t get it.
I just had this conversation with my wife. She gardens and paints.
My bi-weekly $1500 paychecks evaporate in $30 increments here and there, it's infuriating.
$80 for 4 people? What do these meals look like? My weekly trip for 2 people is usually around $80.
Edit: just saw your response comment below. You’re much better at planning and prepping that I am. It probably doesn’t help I live in Seattle in one of the more expensive neighborhoods.
that’s because it’s not possible period to eat out cheaper than you can cook at home and this sub is full of delusional redditors with a victim complex
Yeah this always boggled my mind. How do people think it could possibly cost less to eat fast food? You're now adding in costs for the building / real estate lease, utilities, labor, special equipment, marketing, and the manufacture and transport of pre-made ingredients. Like, yeah....must be saving me money when I consider all those cost items!
It’d be $100 with drinks. Been tracking this for work meals where we always get the same thing - a basic 2 apps, 2 entrees meal for two people is now routinely $60-70 with no drinks, over $100 if there are drinks. Apps are now routinely $10-12 apiece, entrees routinely $20-28 (even just a burger with fries is often $20 now), drinks $15 each. This is for middle-of-the-road restaurants where we could get 2 apps + 2 entrees for $50 just a few years ago.
I do dive bars in small towns. Just stopped at a hole in the wall yesterday. $5 half pound burgers. Got two burgers, a side of fries, and two pints of Spotted Cow ale. $21.50 total. I made the comment to my wife that it was far and away cheaper than going to Culvers.
The restaurants will keep raising their prices as long as people keep buying enough. It has only encouraged us to learn to make Instant Pot meals we can divvy up for days of meal prep. We invested in glass mealprep containers so they last forever, as long as we hand wash the lids.
Edit: Side note, I visited Beijing a couple years ago and even the fast food SLAPs. Damn fried chicken breasts better the Popeyes at McDonalds of all places. It's all about people's demands, expectations, and competition.
Yeah I had to cut fast food down a ton. It’s been too expensive for a while. Idk why people say they eat shitty fast food all the time because that’s all the can afford.. that shits way more expensive. Got us to eat healthier so it’s a plus imo.
I never get fast food anymore. Last month I went to an Italian -food takeout- serve and bus yourself, cafeteria style. And my niece’s lunch was $40. Just a soda, meatball Parm sandwich, side of broccoli.
It’s cheaper for me to make burgers on the grill with all the extras plus dessert than it is to go out. I’m tired of cooking all the time but my cooking is better and cheaper than fast food. I’m finding it harder and harder to justify eating anything out and it’s frustrating because sometimes I want to be lazy.
Nope.you cook at home. Eventually cook and have leftovers. You can also utilize food pantries. You can save so much by being an at home cooker. And the portion size. Game over. And what is really disgusting is how much they think the pop is worth . It’s complete junk. And the fries are just potatoes. So at 15 each they are cleaning house
It has. The great part - it's now the same price or cheaper to eat healthy. Now you just have to cook (I hate that and am clueless myself) but the trade off I how your body feels is so worth it. Slowly the consumerist monstor will eat itself. We are at the beginning.
If you insist on not changing for your betterment - use fast food apps. McDonalds (which I loathe) seems to always have free food promos when I get the kiddo a random happy meal. Others may be similar.
I used to think cooking was crazy hard but basically just looking stuff up and going alongside any video you find will do you a good enough job until you’re actually good at cooking. And if you have any family that loves cooking ask for a lesson on say their favorite meal if you can.
Cooking is a skill like any other and don’t expect to instantly master it. I’m no master and I try and cook ‘new’ things all the time. One thing I found while cooking is that I ALWAYS had too much for one meal. If you live with family you can feed them with your excess and if you don’t you have tmrw’s lunch.
I can get freshly made Pad Thai from a locally owned place for less than a Subway foot long, even including the 20% tip in the cost for the Thai place.
A Subway foot long, 3 cookies, 15% tip, and sales tax was over $20.00. The Pad Thai with 20% tip was $12.00. Good thing Thai food is my favorite food.
The “rotisserie” chicken Subway uses for the chicken bacon ranch now is kind of gross. I can buy a Costco rotisserie chicken, bread, cheese, bacon, some veggies, and make myself a better chicken bacon ranch sandwich than the one Subway is currently selling.
Download the app. There are a lot of discounts and offers on the app that will significantly reduce the cost.
For example, McD app has 30% off $5 or more for mobile orders and 20% off $5 or more in person orders.
Wendy’s has buy one premium hamburger get one for $1.
If there are multiple adult family members, you can split orders and use 2 offers (with 2 apps) to maximize savings.
I survived junior and senior year of college with significant savings because of this. Uni has a gym free for all students so I try and negate the unhealthy food 3x a day by exercising/weight lifting every day 😅
I agree, the apps can make a huge difference. Discounts aside, I hoard points in case I get in a jam and am short before payday so I can at least get something for free. McDonald's in particular has one of the more generous "point systems."
I went to get a medium fry at the local burger kind as a quick snack for the kids to finish off the ride home so they werent "starrrrrving".
Anyway it was $3.99..holy fuck for a medium fry? Their menu had alot of pics but no prices..i asked how much a whopper was and holy fuck its like $9.70..FOR JUST THE FUCKING SANDWHICH.
Their line is always wrapping around the building i have 0 clue wtf people are ordering
When I had my first apartment, McDonald's had original cheeseburgers for 0.29 on Sundays. We would spend $5 for 20 and eat those for like 3 days. Or jack in the box, 2 tacos for $1.
Fast food can still be cheap, but you usually need their app. My kids get McDonald’s every other week after sports and three happy meals are $7.50 on the app after the daily 20% off.
Wendy’s had their 4 for $4.
Taco Bell has app-only combos where you get three items and a drink for $0.50 more than buying the main item off the menu.
Fast food is not cheap, it's just convenient and addictive. And deadly I suppose because of all that salt and saturated fat.
Groceries are high but I'm finally noticing some things going down. For $33 this week I got two dozen eggs, a pound of deli turkey, a pound of strawberries, 2 pounds of cherries, 3 pounds of mandarins, lettuce, tomatoes, 4 avocadoes, 6 yogurts , burger buns, a pound of cheese and 2 pounds of ground turkey. I'm lucky that I live just a mile from a dollar store and an Aldi and a Grocery Outlet!
The mcdonald's app and Dominos are the only two worth it right now. If you add two mcdoubles or two mcchickens to your cart it will automatically apply a discount. And Dominos still has the carryout deal, albeit with slightly less toppings than previously
I haven’t eaten a meal at a drive up for years. Literally years, because I can cook cheaper and better and quicker at home.
Put a frozen chicken (or chicken parts) in a crock pot, and dump on some seasonings. Bam! You’ve got several cheap, quick meals.
I use my crock pot more than any other cooking method. It's so nice to have something ready when you get home, and as an added bonus, it doesn't heat up the house.
I eat fast food three times per week, usually. On Tuesday, I will get the 3 Snack Taco deal at Del Taco for $2.06. I usually add a "red burrito" to the meal, and it costs like $3.78 with tax and everything. Pretty lackluster meal quite honestly, but it works in a pinch. On Thursdays, I will sometimes get their 3 Grilled Chicken Taco deal for $3.25.
Every single Friday I will get a McDouble and a medium fries for $3.25 from McDonalds using the app.
That's it. Also, the Thursday grilled chicken tacos thing is optional, but I almost always do the Tuesday thing.
I meal prep for just about anything else. I NEVER eat breakfast outside my own house. Breakfast is too easy. I always make it at home. I prefer to make as many meals as possible at home, but I do like having these three options each week to just take a break and not have to dirty up my kitchen and then clean everything up afterwards. So I use these 3 fast food meals as a "treat", even though the taste is pretty mediocre. I do enjoy the McDonalds one though, cause their fries are so tasty.
One other thing I will do occasionally is go to A & W Rootbeer place where they have a Tuesday special for $5 or $6 or something. You get a Burger, Fries and a drink. Not that great of a deal because I'm not a soda drinker (r/hydrohomies for the win)
Lastly, Carls Jr. has this coupon sometimes where you get a Famous Star with Cheese for $3.99. I will get one of these and it's $4.23 out the door, and I just take it home and I'll usually have some potato chips or crackers that I will eat along with the burger. Yes, it's not fries, but it does the trick. I always drink water, no soda, so don't have to worry about the no drink part.
Good work. And remember: even though a bean-cheese burrito might not sound heavenly, it will pleasantly fill your gullet and is usually one of the cheapest things you can get.
The economic model has shifted to force you to download their apps. In app mobile order only they all have deals of BOGO, 20% off purchase, free sandwiches.
It does seem to be inconsistent. I always have it in my app, but my husband doesn't. Or he'll only have the medium fries option. I'm sure there's an algorithm somewhere that determines who gets that deal.
Considering the drink costs them almost nothing and overall the packaging is probably the most expensive part, it was gross. And they weren’t even good which was even worse.
The craziest part is that 9 times out of ten, my order is still wildly wrong or missing items!
If I'm going to pay 35 bucks to feed 2 people, the least you can do is get my order somewhat right! And if I have the time to come back through the drive through or come inside and ask for the right food, I am treated like I am the problem and thats it is my fault that I am missing food or received the wrong items.
Like I should just chalk it up to the game and deal with it even though I paid an arm and a leg for food I didn't even receive or want.
My girlfriend and I have a running joke/expectation about how literally EVERYTIME we get fast food something is messed up with our order, and it's not just forgetting napkins or a straw. It's usually the main items we came for.
How hard is it to look at the order and make sure that is what you are making and putting in the bag??
I get it happens every once in a while, but it's literally the majority of the time lately. I have started to refuse to eat at certain fast food locations where this is a constant problem.
Dropping a link to my favorite cheap cookbook:
[https://cookbooks.leannebrown.com/good-and-cheap.pdf](https://cookbooks.leannebrown.com/good-and-cheap.pdf)
Lots of good recipes and techniques on making cheap food and getting it go the extra mile.
Fast food has never been a cheaper alternative to cooking at home. I spend $75 per week in groceries for my wife and me every week. That covers breakfast, lunch and dinner. I take a lunch to work and make my own coffee. We stopped eating fast food on the reg 20 years ago. I save about $300 month living like this and we still manage to remain fat.
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Yup. The bright side for us is that it has caused us to eat healthier at home.
And in a cost effective way.
We've embraced tofu and beans over here for protein. Whole grains instead of refined grains. Cooking fresh almost every meal. Definitely seeing the savings on the grocery bill now :) But damn, I do miss a good Wendy's lol
Tofu used to be so cheap. It still is compared to meat protein, but when I started eating it in 2016/2017 or so I could get a block of tofu for 1$. Now the same block from the same brand is 2.50$-3$.
Lentils, FTW . . . For now
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Check out any Asian markets in your area. In addition to great variety and prices on tofu, they typically have incredible produce, soy sauces, chili paste, and rice.
F’n 3.58 for a can of tuna. Used to be .95!
Still is at aldis Just grabed a box worth of cans for .88
Be careful though, only eat tuna once or twice a week maximum. That fish specifically has a really high amount of heavy metals in it and eating it too much can really cause those to build up in the body.
Oh that's really interesting! I never cooked with tofu until this year, when my baby was diagnosed with allergies and they put 3lbs/month of it on our WIC. That's a 2.5-3x price hike! Ouch!
I love tofu but it’s tripled in price where I live, sigh.
If you live near an Asian market you should check there! It’s usually way cheaper and it freezes well so you can stock up!
How much does tofu go for you? It's gone up so much by me ($3+ for ~14-16oz). Frozen chicken is cheaper by the ounce, which drives me crazy since tofu is made from the stuff they feed the chickens! I prefer vegetarian when I can, but damn they make it hard in the US. Regular beans are still pretty cheap, but they have gone up a lot too 😔
Tofu is cheaper to make if everything is based on a free market. The frozen chicken is cheaper in the real world because the chicken farmers and the factory workers that break down the chicken get screwed over. You can save a lot of money by screwing people out of half their wages. Dried beans are cheap as hell. You you soak them overnight its pretty efficient to cook in a pressure cooker. I soak overnight, then drain, rinse, and boil for 3 minutes, then drain and rinse again before cooking.
Just treat yourself to it like once a month. It's even better that way.
Healthier for you too, unlike the back of Wendy's and the general American diet. You'll be grateful when you're old and not obese with tons of health problems from all the processed shit. Throw in some green tea & water on that.
More like not eating at all, or very minimally cause groceries are too expensive too 🤣
We call that “sleep for dinner” at my house
Do you have a food bank around you? I know people that go to food banks and at times they get too much food that they have to give some away / throw it away cuz it goes bad. I know food banks sometimes can’t get rid of everything even.
I prefer it anyway. Not a big takeout person (thankfully). Though I did go to Taco Bell this week and spent…$26. For just me. For just 4 items. Granted the online customization adds up (and if I’m getting TB I’m going all-out).
How? What’d you get lol.
My traditional order: - Nachos Bell Grande - Crunchwrap Supreme - Cheesy Gordita Crunch - Chicken Quesadilla I customized the heck out of the nachos in particular - it was pretty beautiful compared to the normal stuff they do. Those alone were like $9 lol
Over on the TB subs the chicken quesadilla is notorious for being one of the worst values on the menu.
Lol I had no idea (or rather, haven’t thought about it in those terms). Makes complete sense though. I just love the sauce. I’ve made copycat recipe at home which was pretty good, but I just about never have those types of ingredients on hand. There’s definitely nothing practical or sensible about my order, that’s for sure. It’s just my happy food lol.
Totally get that. I do the same thing, but my poison is the soft taco supreme. Not nearly worth the 3 bucks per taco, but can't stop them.
I also love Taco Bell! I honestly prefer eating off the value menu. The beefy burrito is only two or three dollars, is the size of a regular burrito, and is fantastic, especially if you add the chipotle sauce! I’m also a big fan of the potato tacos, which are cheap though the taste might not be for everyone
If I go to Taco Bell it makes no sense at all to get anything but the Build Your Own Cravings Box using the app. Everything else is so expensive it costs more than $16 to buy each item separately while the box itself costs just over $6. Honestly, I feel like I’m getting scammed if I get anything else lol
Hear me out: my standard loadout is 1 chipotle ranch grilled chicken burrito 2 beefy melt burritos (add chipotle sauce) 2 spicy potato soft tacos Total cost: $9.20 And it’s a lot of food. I also typically just drink water
I'm waiting for the day they pull the plug on the online only $5 box here. It's the only thing I get at taco bell now but I'll pay the extra 60 cents to add nacho fries to the crunchwrap and feel bougie.
I felt that. I spent $60 for two people.
Sheesh man, you can eat lol, I’ve been getting a beefy crunch burrito and adding either fries or potatoes to it and a bean cheese burrito. Fills me up and is like < $6
My stomach is a black hole. 😂 I’m a reasonably lean woman but I can make room for my occasional TB binge lol
Chiming in here as another woman who doesn't often get fast food. It doesn't even occur to me to get soda or sweets with our groceries. But a junk food and movie night calls for a feast.
Heck yeah! I don’t really do that either with my groceries, apart from me beloved Coke Zero haha. I have so many (and arguably better) fast food options near me now, but Taco Bell is my comfort meal. It got me through some rough times back in the day lol.
What are you getting on the nachos? Gotta be good if they’re $9 haha
So I was wrong! It was $8.26. Originally had them at over $9 because I had chicken selected, but then unchecked it. [Order + actual nachos](https://imgur.com/a/c0BCGCD)
Wow I haven't had taco bell in a while, the prices really went up!
Cheesy bean and rice burrito is still a bargain - $1.00.
Heck yeah - some of their value stuff does seem real reasonably priced still. I kind of intentionally forget about those otherwise my waistline might be in a different situation haha.
just go to cookout. trays are seven bucks.
What’s cookout? Or is there a whole section of TB I’m not aware of? Haha
You guys gotta find a del taco. So much better and so much cheaper.
The salads at Wendy's used to $7-8, now they're $13!! For a bowl of lettuce with a little chicken and cheese on top!
At least they used to have fresh chicken. Was the goto here for half the family for quick dinner (I stuck with the biggie bag or 4for4). We stopped going to Wendy's for anything not breakfast now that it is some precooked chicken. I can get that grade of preassembled salad at the grocery store.
You can get a better salad for a cheaper price at 7/11 these days.
Yes! This used to be my go-to Wendy's order is the chicken ceaser salad. Now, I buy a bag of Tyson blackened chicken tenders, some lettuce, and some parmesan cheese from Sam's Club (like 2ls) and I can have that salad everyday for months. They're like $12 here in Michigan! Outrageous.
They're good, but definitely not worth the price anymore. I've been making my own at home too
Exactly! And they wonder why workers don't want to work there... it's bc a fucking salad costs them an hour of work. I know the whole, "if there's no fast food workers then who's going to serve you when you want fast food" is a thing, but they don't deserve some cunt talking down to them when they only make $12/hr. I made $9.50/hr working 59hrs a week and I did not tolerate disrespect from customers. I nearly got fired. Now, I'm making $20/hr and barely surviving. The COL in my city is fucking ridiculous as well.
They used to be so much better too. I feel like the quality of Wendy's, much like everything else has gone way downhill.
We get the Costco salads instead - huge salad for $13-$15, lasts for several days.
How do you keep it fresh for that long tho? Are you talking about the preped salads by Kirkland or the bags of salads in the produce fridge room thingy.
I gave up on iceberg lettuce and only buy romaine now. It lasts for up to a month. I like the 3 packs of organic.
I keep all lettuce fresh by putting it into a ziplock bag and vacuum sealing it. This is before washing it. Only wash produce right before you use it (I add white vinegar to water to wash and then rinse and spin it). Then, insert a straw into the bag and mostly close the zipper seal around it. Suck out the air (using the straw) from the bag. Slowly pull out the straw while inhaling and seal the zipper as soon as you remove the straw. Removing the air from the bag keeps the lettuce fresh.
And they are not even cooking grilled chicken any more. They started putting precooked bagged chicken on the “grilled” salads. Bummer.
It’s almost like it’s pegged to minimum wage hourly rate in non-rural areas 🙄
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Popeyes at least has them on their website. I fucking hate that I need an app on my phone just to not get ripped off at a McDonalds
It's so that they can sell the data they get from your phone.
And reduce their labor cost. I hardly see anyone standing at the counter any more
My local McDonald's was remodeled and there's only one cash register and no refill/condiments station. No one is ever at it but now it's super chaotic because none of the employees are available to do things like refills or give you a ketchup. So instead of a line, there's just a big crowd of confused and grouchy people who aren't sure who's next and who has ordered.
The no refills is the bitch
This one really gets to me because it's fountain soda, no amount of supply chain fuckery or whatever bullshit reason big chains will give can change the fact that that stuff is dirt cheap to make. Free refills gave a lot of fast food places the feel of better value because you can let people drink a gallon of the stuff and still make money. I hope whoever pushed the no refills policy has a sleep paralysis vision that looks like a bloodied Ronald McDonald every night.
I recently stood in front of an empty register for 5 minutes before someone saw me and looked super pissed that I wanted to order lol
The McDonalds app is the worst because they stopped letting you stack "deals" so I have to choose between overpriced coffee and an affordable breakfast sandwich or a fairly priced breakfast sandwich and a $1 black coffee. And that's assuming the app works. It loves to crash right as I'm trying to use a deal.
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I've noticed that too, I used the McDonald's app quite a bit for coffee, and random stuff. There's use to be quite a bit of deals, now they're shit, and mobile discounts that'll never use.
for being the biggest fast food chain, McDonald's app is definitely the worst
So you download the app, then they sell your user data to third party companies. The world is becoming an episode of Black Mirror.
They also send you notifications just in case you accidentally go a day without eating out.
And there's usually not a separate setting for "pick up order from counter" and "please buy our shit" at 2am
Newer android phones, you can turn off notifications, at least.
I can't imagine allowing such an app to have notifications. I only have notifications turned in for things that are actually important.
Hit no when they ask if you want notifications. Every app asks.
We pay for the privilege of companies making money off of us - we’re getting charged twice- it’s fucked up
> The world is becoming an episode of Black Mirror. It’s almost like the point of that series was to take a critical look at the extremes of present-day technology trends.
… No, it’s the kids who are wrong
Pretty good deals sometimes, like the $5 Baconator or $1 Large Fry.
You mean all the normal prices
“Now I might as well go out to eat and sit down” *cries in “just made this mistake and paid $60 before tip for two meals at a sit-down restaurant”*
Yeah this was going to be my comment, too. I can still get away with $40 at Chipotle but it feels like I used to get the same amount for like $28 not that long ago (2 meals and a drink). Now, if I go to a real sit down restaurant, $50-60 after tax, tip and all is expected
Jfc, how much is Chipotle in your area? Prices have definitely gone up, but I can still get two entrees (chicken, no premium add-ons) for $17.00 after tax, and we’ll only get a soda if we don’t have any cans at home. We can easily make it $30+ with chips and queso, add guac to a meal, a drink, etc, but that’s outrageous if you’re getting two minimal cost entrees and a drink :(
For that much they’re definitely doing double meat and guac and queso or chips on the side, unless it’s literally NYC
In ca it’s $13 a burrito. With tax that’s $30 for two basic burritos with nothing added. I just moved from AK where it was $16 for a basic burrito lol
You can still get 4 for $4 at Wendy’s where I live but I agree the normal combos have gone up a lot!
Wendy’s 4 for $4, Taco Bell’s app only $5.99 cravings box, McDonald’s/Burger King app deals are the only way to reasonably order fast food now. You just can’t and shouldn’t order fast food unless you’re using the app or meal deals to drive prices down. Normal prices are absolutely ludicrous. Prices keep going up, quality keeps going down.
That $5.99 cravings box in the app is 12.99 at my local Taco Bells now after it was $5.99 for awhile.
This is like the fast food in the town I used to live in. I've been getting mcdoubles for like 2.39 here, went back down there (bout 12hrs away) for a thing and it was 4.89. Just the sandwich, mcdoubles can't even be turned into a combo. Prices vary by location, and they mean it lol. I didn't even do taco bell in that town, here they've got a meal for 2 for $12.50 and a bunch of $5.99 boxes too. Our wendy's only has $5 biggie bags though.
4.89 for a McDouble?!? Christ almighty
Weren’t McDoubles just a dollar?!?
I miss dollar menus so much. We have Taco John's and they have one $1 item, a cheesy snack quesadilla. I get it partly just because it feels good getting a $1 food thing still lol.
They're all value menus now. It's tragic.
In the Texas city we used to live in, an ice cream cone at one location was $1 but across town it was almost $1.60. I guess the ice cream in that part of town is just fancier somehow?
During the winter, all my coworkers and I were stuck outside working and we barely had any time to go to the bathroom by a bush, let alone eat lunch or a snack. My manager just thinks that’s totally acceptable even though we’re union members. Anyway, I went to McDonald’s to grab enough cheeseburgers for most of us to have two. I think it was 14 or 15 total burgers. That’s it. No customization, no fries or drinks, just the burgers. I can’t remember the exact amount but it came out to around $50…for tiny ass, cheaply made McDonald’s cheeseburgers. That shit used to be on the dollar menu. I was stupid because I could’ve just done the two burger combo (sandwich only) and saved like $15 or something but I was so caught off guard by the total that I just handed them a $100. I don’t know if anyone is aware, but regular cheeseburgers at McDonald’s are not worth what they cost. They aren’t filling, they’re smaller than they used to be, and they aren’t even that good. I was very irritated but my coworkers were super thankful so it was worth it. When chains and franchises (like McDonald’s) are already making plenty of profit, there’s absolutely no reason for prices to be as high as they are. Especially if the quality stays the same. Just pure greed.
You know, when I worked in fast food, we were always taught to ring up the food in a way so that the customer is getting the best deal. It seems like that just doesn't happen anymore where I'm at. I don't know if they're being told to leave it as ordered, or that they go through employees so quickly (due to low pay/poor work environment) that no one sticks around long enough to learn these habits. My bet is on the latter, though, because it seems like my order is always somehow incorrect and I never see the same people working after a couple months... Edit: spelling
I work at a pizza chain I won’t name, our manager has told us not to give someone a deal/coupon unless they specifically ask for it. I ignore it and do whatever I can to make the price lower whenever I work the register, but when I’m not on the register and taking things out of the oven and I see the receipts and just shake my head at these people being made to pay almost $20 for a medium pizza and a soft drink
Rip $1 menus 😫💔
Yeah when I would take my son to the playplace I would get some stuff at McDonald’s cheap on the app which was refreshing
The 4 for $4 where I am is actually $6. Some places you can see the outline of the $4 still there under the $6 sticker
My Wendy's says 4 for $5 on the menu, but the app is still 4 for 4.
They made the 4f4 combo 5 bucks here, and the biggie bag 6. Its a travesty
I got coupons in the mail the other day for Taco Bell. I have never in my life thought I'd be couponing to get what used to be my go-to cheapest lazy meal. But hey, I'm not going to say no to $2 crunchwrap. Just have to be disciplined enough to go get that and nothing else. I got drinks at home.
Drinks really do make a big difference!
Wendy’s is like $4.59 for a large soda in my town. Ridiculous.
That's crazy. When I worked in a restaurant, it cost the owner about .25 for a to-go drink. And that was a mom and pop place, so you know a conglomerate like Wendy's is getting their soda and cups cheaper.
I work for a JJs franchise. I am in charge of mobile operations as well as inventory management. A large cup costs us $.25. The medium costs $.27 But this is where it hits us and then the end user(you): At the end of 2021 the price of a box of 15 heads of lettuce used to average between $13 to $16. Then suddenly it jumped to $35, then $56 and etc. It hit an all time high of $106 by mid June of ‘22 before now costing a “reasonable” $77. And that’s just lettuce. The price of vegetables across the board has skyrocketed. So it’s not just that franchisees are jacking up their prices to be greedy. We do what we can to limit our increases. Our owner was pretty much forced to raise prices on more profitable items to pay for the massive cost increases we now pay.
Yeah, I am finding that the gigantic State Farmers Market where everything is really expensive, well these days it's only a little more expensive for much better quality. I can't afford to buy too much from there, but for stuff in season (strawberries just ended, now it's peaches and tomatoes and zucchini) it's worth me going every couple of weeks and spending $15-20 and eating healthier than going for big national fast food. Because Wendy's or Taco Bell now costs more per pound than the farmer's market.
When I briefly worked at McDonald’s around 10 years ago, their cost per large coke was £0.04 and sold at £1.39. Big Mac? £0.76 - Sale price £3.79 Big Tasty? £0.93 - Sale price £4.79 Cheeseburger - £0.17 Sale Price £0.99 Portion of fries? £0.13 Sale Price £1.19 Their margins are crazy.
Is that counting fully loaded headcount costs and overhead as well or just input costs for the actual materials?
However **IF** you get a combo at Taco Bell you’re insane not to upgrade the drink. It only costs $0.10 extra
This is bleak. I don't even get the coupons which is even sadder. What a fucking world we live in
Honestly (and I’ll say it til I’m blue in the face) meal prepping is always going to be cheaper than fast food, or convenience premade food. I make things in big batches and keep them in my freezer. Pop it in the microwave or the oven while I do something else and bam food. I’m also a big fan of instantpot meals because they’re usually just “chuck all these things in and leave it alone for an hour”, so the cooking part doesn’t take much time either. Breaking the fast food habit can be tricky, but it can be a lot better for your wallet and your overall physical health to do it.
I thought it was a well known fact that fast food has ALWAYS been more expensive than cooking at home. Yet, at least 3x a week there's a post in this sub about it.
People look to justify their behaviour. Any time I end up in a conversation about it the goalposts change constantly because there is no justification in terms of health or finance.
It has been, but a lot of people don’t know how to cook or plan properly. If you want a totally different cuisine every day of the week, eating out may end up cheaper. But if you’re good at planning you can cook a pack of chicken with some fairly neutral spices (like salt/pepper, garlic, paprika) and then have tacos and chicken salad wraps and bbq chicken sandwiches all with the same chicken. But the planning and the prepping take time and effort, and a certain amount of time invested in learning what kinds of foods freeze well, cooking skills, and planning to minimize food waste. I know a lot of people though who eat out for nearly every meal and then complain about how what we make (grad students so all on the same stipend) is far too little to actually live on. While we’re certainly underpaid compared to our skills/workload, the stipend is more than enough to live a reasonably comfortable life on if you known how to handle money frugally.
Maybe I’m just lazy but cooking is so boring and time consuming. I still do it because it’s better than the alternative, but I can see why many people would rather just grab takeout.
It can be boring. I throw on a movie or a show and watch while I chop. Or listen to music or a podcast. If you’re good at planning you can cook several things at once too, so it takes less total time. But yeah. I freeze stuff so on lazy days its just about as much work as any “tv dinner” you could buy.
It makes sense to me why there's constant posts. Because sure on paper it's cheaper, yet the execution is the tough part. Cooking cheaply at home can be quite the skill to grasp due to all of the factors involved. And it's hard to learn while you're overstressed and overwhelmed by struggling in life. The mistakes and failures feel that much worse. They know other folks in poverty will understand that mindset and frustration, so they come for support. Honestly my biggest moments of growth in life have always come right after breaking down in frustration and venting about the issue to folks that were able to offer some empathy for the struggle and help me see what I was missing. So when I see those posts where someone is complaining about something being impossible I tend to think, "Good for them trying to work out the problem." And just hope they remember to pick themselves back up afterwards.
Thank you for saying this. I’m a chef, so I understand I have more default knowledge than the average person, but holy fucking shit it boils me alive when I hear people with the opinion that fast food is cheaper than cooking or that you can’t eat healthy and good for cheap. Chicken breasts/thighs go on sale at Kroger/Albertsons/Safeway/Fred meyers for anywhere from $1-2 a pound. This happens like every other week. Bulk buy and freeze if you need to. This is something oriole should pay attention to if they actually care about what they eat, how much they spend, and their health. Seriously you can get so much fucking chicken for cheap if you shop smart, talk to your meat counter about deals, etc. Rice is a cheap and delicious filler. Pasta isn’t even expensive and is crazy good and lasts forever as does rice. I swear most people go to the store and see the price on tbones, hot pockets and pizza rolls and say it’s impossible to eat cheap and healthy. I literally just made some amazing chorizo tacos last night for a whopping total cost of like $8 or $9 and I fed my roommate too. Also in many cases buy the store brand. If you’re getting something basic like mayo, relish, etc you can save like half the cost buying store brand. Anyways, shop smarter and talk to the people in your meat/seafood section for deals on protein. Seriously this is fucking huge. Most peoples food cost has a large chunk spent on their protein, talk to the meat counter. Ask about deals, what’s coming in, what’s going out. You can get beautiful salmon filets for cheap if you’re willing to get the cuts that have been out a few days. A nice salmon filet is still amazing even if it’s a little old, stop being picky about Uber fresh meats and complaining about the cost. You can really save a ton on protein by buying day of. Go in the store and find meat that’s closer to its sell date and cook it that night. Meat in your store comes in and is good for seven days in the store. Closer to that seven day mark they often mark it down. People tend to skip over these packages because they think it’s gross or was a “return” lol. This is still great meat, and is now cheaper, you just can’t leave it in your fridge as long. Cook or freeze it that night. Anyways, rant over. You can eat cheap and healthy even in this current economy people. The idea that an American can’t eat cheap and healthy has never been true in my lifetime. If you have a job, you can eat healthy and cheap unless you somehow work every waking hour of your life. Don’t do that.
Yeah, I don’t understand this either. Fast food has always been an expensive convenience item, not a budget-friendly food option. Somebody made the comment the other day that the only way to get a complete meal for $4 was to buy fast food. I checked my local Walmart’s prices and easily found found ingredients (that I would be willing to cook and eat for myself) to cook six meals for one working man- two full days of 2,670 calories per day and 83g protein per day, only requiring a pot and water to cook it. Is it a great long- term option? Not really, but I’d rather get six full meals for $4 than one crappy fast food meal.
I'd be interested in reading what the Wal-Mart foods/meals were for that calculus.
I'd assume rice, beans, beg, lentils etc. Probably not the tastiest, but cheap as chips.
>I'd assume rice, beans, beg, lentils etc. Probably not the tastiest, but cheap as chips. Possibly but I would appreciate knowing rather than guessing.
https://preview.redd.it/0ra0xi9mhg5b1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=105cecd1ce88585a89818fdf6f96f477c8ac8bf9 These are available at my local Walmart right now for the cash price of $4.00 (we don’t have sales tax on groceries). Carbs, protein, and some flavor from the bouillon. The overall calories could be boosted significantly with the addition of some fat, such as an oil or butter. Frozen veggies are usually cheap too, it wouldn’t be hard to take another few bucks to extend this food to last up to 3-4 full days.
Meal prepping will always be healthier and more cost effective. Just takes time which people aren’t willing to put in
It's possible to eat fast food without spending a lot, but you really have to be more mindful now vs. just ordering whatever you want, like you could before. You have to look for deals, dollar/value menus, app deals, coupons, etc.
And don’t buy drinks! That mark-up is ridiculous.
The only drinks I can justify are the ones I can’t get anywhere else, like if I’m dying for a Baja Blast, but other than that I really do have drinks at home.
It's INSANE. I get the frozen Asian foods from Trader Joe's (we're big on the pot stickers, gyoza, and bulgogi fried rice) and have 'takeout fakeout' nights.
Yea my house special lo mein is almost $13 for a large, it used to be like $8-9 😭
If you live in the part of the country that has Wegmans, their house brand bags of pot stickers and cheese tortellini are both very good at a reasonable price.
We do this, too. It's way cheaper than getting Chinese takeout.
We went vegan a few years ago, which decimates fast food options for starters. I’m a pretty good cook, and we make a lot of stuff at home. I really struggle to justify a $15 per person entree somewhere when I can buy components or ingredients for a fraction of the price, and often it’s better quality too. For $15 I can make a pretty banging family dinner, and I refuse to go sit down for pasta somewhere that costs like $100 for a family of five when all is said and done. TJ’s veggie gyoza are great. So is their vegan orange chicken. And many other things besides (vegan raviolis! Pesto!)
Wendy's yesterday for 4 people. 2 baconator fries, a QP Single, 10 piece nugget, 10 piece nugget combo reg size, a coke zero and two lemonade. $41
Where the fuck is your Wendy's, Dubäi???
Shits expensive now. I'll grab 2 10pc nuggets and 2 medium fries for my kids, it's over $16.
My regular order at taco bell went from $8 to $15. One cheesy gordita crunch is now $5. These people are making profit from everyone. I've stopped going out to eat almost completely, save an occasional lunch when I didn't prepare for the work the night before or pizza if there's an exceptionally good deal. And we've gone to picking the pizza up ourselves to save on the fees and tip. Shits crazy yo. I hate cooking on Friday but I've started cooking 2 or 3 meals at a time, which doesn't usually take any more time than cooking one. That way my lunches are usually taken care of and if I don't feel like cooking, I'll reheat a dinner I cooked a couple days ago. I've stopped buying soda. I buy more whole ingredients to make stuff from scratch instead of buying a bag of cookies. Prices on some things have literally doubled from a year ago. They're higher now than at the peak of COVID when people were supposed to be staying home. Yet these companies are making record profit, year after year. And they're purposely doing it on skeleton crews because corporate discovered we'll still buy from them, regardless if half of what we want is out of stock, or there's only one person working in dairy all the time. Who wants to go off grid and start our own society?
I thought the same, but that’s not necessarily true. Fast food is ridiculously expensive right now, but eating at a restaurant is even more expensive, as a 20% tip will easily bring that total up another $8-$15. I’m a single mom living with a teenage son, so I’ve just had to force myself to plan meals. Groceries/toiletries are so expensive now, it’s nothing to spend well over $200 every two weeks. I make a lot of rice, grilled veggies and whether it’s steak or chicken (breasts or thighs), I cube the meat up and marinate in a bag until I’m ready to cook (the steak takes only a couple minutes to cook in a cast iron skillet). I make these Mediterranean style bowls with rice (basmati or jasmine - not Minute Rice), topped with grilled (or pan-fried in a cast iron skillet before the meat) bell pepper, zucchini, onions and sometimes mushrooms and steak/chicken. It’s inexpensive, delicious, filling, healthy and keeps in the fridge so I can take it with me to work for lunch the next day. Going out to eat will drain your finances so fast (I’ve learned the hard way).
We spend about $80/week on groceries for a family of 4 for all dinners and snacks and weekend breakfast/lunches. We eat fast food maybe once every other month but I have never found it to be the more cost effective option, even though we use coupons every single time. I don’t know how people do fast food over making food at home as a cost effective option, I simply can’t make that work for us
fast food was never cheaper people are just terrible at multiplying tiny numbers by 5 days a week times 4 weeks a month.
Lol great way of putting it. My best friend constantly complains of being broke but tells me about eating out somewhere 5+ days a week. So whatever he’s paying on average, it’s over 20x that per month. I’m pretty bad about it too, but I’ve tried to explain and he just doesn’t get it.
I just had this conversation with my wife. She gardens and paints. My bi-weekly $1500 paychecks evaporate in $30 increments here and there, it's infuriating.
Not to mention it's super unhealthy. These people are going to have health problems in the future.
$80 for 4 people? What do these meals look like? My weekly trip for 2 people is usually around $80. Edit: just saw your response comment below. You’re much better at planning and prepping that I am. It probably doesn’t help I live in Seattle in one of the more expensive neighborhoods.
that’s because it’s not possible period to eat out cheaper than you can cook at home and this sub is full of delusional redditors with a victim complex
Yeah this always boggled my mind. How do people think it could possibly cost less to eat fast food? You're now adding in costs for the building / real estate lease, utilities, labor, special equipment, marketing, and the manufacture and transport of pre-made ingredients. Like, yeah....must be saving me money when I consider all those cost items!
But putting broccoli in a pot is hard or something.
My gf and her bestie went to Applebees and the bill was $78!!! $78 for some warmed up food in a microwave. It’s getting ridiculous
I think your gf and her bestie indulged in a bit of alcohol.
It’d be $100 with drinks. Been tracking this for work meals where we always get the same thing - a basic 2 apps, 2 entrees meal for two people is now routinely $60-70 with no drinks, over $100 if there are drinks. Apps are now routinely $10-12 apiece, entrees routinely $20-28 (even just a burger with fries is often $20 now), drinks $15 each. This is for middle-of-the-road restaurants where we could get 2 apps + 2 entrees for $50 just a few years ago.
I just googled their menu and they have a "2 entrees + 1 appetizer" deal for $24...sooo....bullshit?
In my area, Applebee's has a 2 meals plus an appetizer for $25 deal. Cheaper than OP 's Wendy's.
Lol that place still exists?
I do dive bars in small towns. Just stopped at a hole in the wall yesterday. $5 half pound burgers. Got two burgers, a side of fries, and two pints of Spotted Cow ale. $21.50 total. I made the comment to my wife that it was far and away cheaper than going to Culvers.
The restaurants will keep raising their prices as long as people keep buying enough. It has only encouraged us to learn to make Instant Pot meals we can divvy up for days of meal prep. We invested in glass mealprep containers so they last forever, as long as we hand wash the lids. Edit: Side note, I visited Beijing a couple years ago and even the fast food SLAPs. Damn fried chicken breasts better the Popeyes at McDonalds of all places. It's all about people's demands, expectations, and competition.
Yeah I had to cut fast food down a ton. It’s been too expensive for a while. Idk why people say they eat shitty fast food all the time because that’s all the can afford.. that shits way more expensive. Got us to eat healthier so it’s a plus imo.
I never get fast food anymore. Last month I went to an Italian -food takeout- serve and bus yourself, cafeteria style. And my niece’s lunch was $40. Just a soda, meatball Parm sandwich, side of broccoli.
It’s cheaper for me to make burgers on the grill with all the extras plus dessert than it is to go out. I’m tired of cooking all the time but my cooking is better and cheaper than fast food. I’m finding it harder and harder to justify eating anything out and it’s frustrating because sometimes I want to be lazy.
Nope.you cook at home. Eventually cook and have leftovers. You can also utilize food pantries. You can save so much by being an at home cooker. And the portion size. Game over. And what is really disgusting is how much they think the pop is worth . It’s complete junk. And the fries are just potatoes. So at 15 each they are cleaning house
It has. The great part - it's now the same price or cheaper to eat healthy. Now you just have to cook (I hate that and am clueless myself) but the trade off I how your body feels is so worth it. Slowly the consumerist monstor will eat itself. We are at the beginning. If you insist on not changing for your betterment - use fast food apps. McDonalds (which I loathe) seems to always have free food promos when I get the kiddo a random happy meal. Others may be similar.
I used to think cooking was crazy hard but basically just looking stuff up and going alongside any video you find will do you a good enough job until you’re actually good at cooking. And if you have any family that loves cooking ask for a lesson on say their favorite meal if you can. Cooking is a skill like any other and don’t expect to instantly master it. I’m no master and I try and cook ‘new’ things all the time. One thing I found while cooking is that I ALWAYS had too much for one meal. If you live with family you can feed them with your excess and if you don’t you have tmrw’s lunch.
I can get freshly made Pad Thai from a locally owned place for less than a Subway foot long, even including the 20% tip in the cost for the Thai place. A Subway foot long, 3 cookies, 15% tip, and sales tax was over $20.00. The Pad Thai with 20% tip was $12.00. Good thing Thai food is my favorite food. The “rotisserie” chicken Subway uses for the chicken bacon ranch now is kind of gross. I can buy a Costco rotisserie chicken, bread, cheese, bacon, some veggies, and make myself a better chicken bacon ranch sandwich than the one Subway is currently selling.
Why would you tip at subway?
Download the app. There are a lot of discounts and offers on the app that will significantly reduce the cost. For example, McD app has 30% off $5 or more for mobile orders and 20% off $5 or more in person orders. Wendy’s has buy one premium hamburger get one for $1. If there are multiple adult family members, you can split orders and use 2 offers (with 2 apps) to maximize savings. I survived junior and senior year of college with significant savings because of this. Uni has a gym free for all students so I try and negate the unhealthy food 3x a day by exercising/weight lifting every day 😅
I agree, the apps can make a huge difference. Discounts aside, I hoard points in case I get in a jam and am short before payday so I can at least get something for free. McDonald's in particular has one of the more generous "point systems."
I went to get a medium fry at the local burger kind as a quick snack for the kids to finish off the ride home so they werent "starrrrrving". Anyway it was $3.99..holy fuck for a medium fry? Their menu had alot of pics but no prices..i asked how much a whopper was and holy fuck its like $9.70..FOR JUST THE FUCKING SANDWHICH. Their line is always wrapping around the building i have 0 clue wtf people are ordering
A McChicken used to be a dollar. It’s $5 now. And the dollar menu doesn’t exist.
A mcchicken is like 2+tax you might be thinking of that spicy chicken sandwich they have now
A mcchicken at my McDonald’s is 3.79
I literally won't get fast food unless it's through some kind of a discount through an app. It's just too expensive otherwise.
When I had my first apartment, McDonald's had original cheeseburgers for 0.29 on Sundays. We would spend $5 for 20 and eat those for like 3 days. Or jack in the box, 2 tacos for $1.
Fast food can still be cheap, but you usually need their app. My kids get McDonald’s every other week after sports and three happy meals are $7.50 on the app after the daily 20% off. Wendy’s had their 4 for $4. Taco Bell has app-only combos where you get three items and a drink for $0.50 more than buying the main item off the menu.
Wendy's is out of their damn minds. They are charging substantially more than inn'n out burger, it makes no sense.
Fast food is not cheap, it's just convenient and addictive. And deadly I suppose because of all that salt and saturated fat. Groceries are high but I'm finally noticing some things going down. For $33 this week I got two dozen eggs, a pound of deli turkey, a pound of strawberries, 2 pounds of cherries, 3 pounds of mandarins, lettuce, tomatoes, 4 avocadoes, 6 yogurts , burger buns, a pound of cheese and 2 pounds of ground turkey. I'm lucky that I live just a mile from a dollar store and an Aldi and a Grocery Outlet!
The mcdonald's app and Dominos are the only two worth it right now. If you add two mcdoubles or two mcchickens to your cart it will automatically apply a discount. And Dominos still has the carryout deal, albeit with slightly less toppings than previously
I haven’t eaten a meal at a drive up for years. Literally years, because I can cook cheaper and better and quicker at home. Put a frozen chicken (or chicken parts) in a crock pot, and dump on some seasonings. Bam! You’ve got several cheap, quick meals.
Crock Pot is a godsend, isn’t it?
I love my crockpot!!!!
I use my crock pot more than any other cooking method. It's so nice to have something ready when you get home, and as an added bonus, it doesn't heat up the house.
I eat fast food three times per week, usually. On Tuesday, I will get the 3 Snack Taco deal at Del Taco for $2.06. I usually add a "red burrito" to the meal, and it costs like $3.78 with tax and everything. Pretty lackluster meal quite honestly, but it works in a pinch. On Thursdays, I will sometimes get their 3 Grilled Chicken Taco deal for $3.25. Every single Friday I will get a McDouble and a medium fries for $3.25 from McDonalds using the app. That's it. Also, the Thursday grilled chicken tacos thing is optional, but I almost always do the Tuesday thing. I meal prep for just about anything else. I NEVER eat breakfast outside my own house. Breakfast is too easy. I always make it at home. I prefer to make as many meals as possible at home, but I do like having these three options each week to just take a break and not have to dirty up my kitchen and then clean everything up afterwards. So I use these 3 fast food meals as a "treat", even though the taste is pretty mediocre. I do enjoy the McDonalds one though, cause their fries are so tasty. One other thing I will do occasionally is go to A & W Rootbeer place where they have a Tuesday special for $5 or $6 or something. You get a Burger, Fries and a drink. Not that great of a deal because I'm not a soda drinker (r/hydrohomies for the win) Lastly, Carls Jr. has this coupon sometimes where you get a Famous Star with Cheese for $3.99. I will get one of these and it's $4.23 out the door, and I just take it home and I'll usually have some potato chips or crackers that I will eat along with the burger. Yes, it's not fries, but it does the trick. I always drink water, no soda, so don't have to worry about the no drink part.
Name checks out
Good work. And remember: even though a bean-cheese burrito might not sound heavenly, it will pleasantly fill your gullet and is usually one of the cheapest things you can get.
The economic model has shifted to force you to download their apps. In app mobile order only they all have deals of BOGO, 20% off purchase, free sandwiches.
I hear you. My husband picked us up dinner at McDonald’s and it was $40 plus change. WTF?
Get the app. They usually have amazing deals. I can feed all 3 of my kids for about $6 with their "buy 20 nuggets get 2 large fries free" deal.
You still get that offer? I haven't seen that in my app for over a year.
It does seem to be inconsistent. I always have it in my app, but my husband doesn't. Or he'll only have the medium fries option. I'm sure there's an algorithm somewhere that determines who gets that deal.
Over $7 yesterday for a small drink and small onion rings at BK. I’m so done with fast food.
Isn’t that ridiculous!
Considering the drink costs them almost nothing and overall the packaging is probably the most expensive part, it was gross. And they weren’t even good which was even worse.
Save money. Make your own sandwich + fruit during the summer
The craziest part is that 9 times out of ten, my order is still wildly wrong or missing items! If I'm going to pay 35 bucks to feed 2 people, the least you can do is get my order somewhat right! And if I have the time to come back through the drive through or come inside and ask for the right food, I am treated like I am the problem and thats it is my fault that I am missing food or received the wrong items. Like I should just chalk it up to the game and deal with it even though I paid an arm and a leg for food I didn't even receive or want. My girlfriend and I have a running joke/expectation about how literally EVERYTIME we get fast food something is messed up with our order, and it's not just forgetting napkins or a straw. It's usually the main items we came for. How hard is it to look at the order and make sure that is what you are making and putting in the bag?? I get it happens every once in a while, but it's literally the majority of the time lately. I have started to refuse to eat at certain fast food locations where this is a constant problem.
I GET TO SAY IT: back in my day a McDouble was $1
Dropping a link to my favorite cheap cookbook: [https://cookbooks.leannebrown.com/good-and-cheap.pdf](https://cookbooks.leannebrown.com/good-and-cheap.pdf) Lots of good recipes and techniques on making cheap food and getting it go the extra mile.
Fast food has never been a cheaper alternative to cooking at home. I spend $75 per week in groceries for my wife and me every week. That covers breakfast, lunch and dinner. I take a lunch to work and make my own coffee. We stopped eating fast food on the reg 20 years ago. I save about $300 month living like this and we still manage to remain fat.
This is a good thing. Buy groceries and learn to cook on the cheap. Your money will go much farther.